Fawad Alam and Mohammad Rizwan bring Pakistan to within a session of a draw

Tea Pakistan 239 and 215 for 4 (Alam 94*, Rizwan 45*) need another 158 runs to beat New Zealand 431 and 180 for 5 dec

An unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 140 between Fawad Alam and Mohammad Rizwan, spanning 52.3 overs, has given Pakistan a genuine shot of saving the first Test at Mount Maunganui. A possible 36 overs remain for New Zealand to pick up the last six Pakistan wickets, after Alam and Rizwan batted through a wicketless middle session on the fifth day.

At tea, Alam was six runs away from a cathartic hundred, having faced 228 balls and spent over five-and-a-half hours at the crease, while Rizwan, who came into bat in the second over of the day, was batting on 45 off 153.

Uncertain bounce was the fast bowlers' only real weapon on a slow fifth-day pitch at Bay Oval, and even that was in minimal supply when the ball grew old and the seam flattened out. The frequency of up-and-down bounce, and its magnitude, however, increased significantly when New Zealand took the second new ball an hour after tea, and Alam and Rizwan were particularly impressive while seeing off 12 new-ball overs before the tea break.

Tim Southee seemed to get the most out of the new ball. He got two balls to misbehave in diametrically opposite ways from roughly the same spot in his second over; Rizwan did very well to get his bat and gloves out of the way while leaving the first one, which reared alarmingly from just short of a length, and the second one scooted under his bat as he hopped across to defend.

Kyle Jamieson then came on in the eighth over with the new ball and tried to find swing from a driving length. Having just driven one such ball crisply to the cover boundary, Rizwan chased after another, causing New Zealand to believe for the only time during their partnership that they had broken through, when the ball popped up to first slip. Replays, however, confirmed the umpires' soft signal of not-out, showing it had been a bump ball off the toe-end of the bat.

That loose drive was one of very few indiscretions in a disciplined effort from Rizwan, who showed impressive defensive technique against the quicks, getting nicely behind the line and negotiating low-bouncing balls on the stumps with the straightest of bats. Having initially struggled with the slowness of the pitch, playing a couple of drives too early and away from his body, he turned it into his ally, waiting on the back foot and giving himself time to adjust to any quirks of bounce or direction.

By the time the tea interval approached, Alam had got himself so well adjusted to the conditions that he had begun to play his shots, even against the new ball, including back-to-back fours off Jamieson - the first punched off the back foot through point, the second punched down the ground past mid-on.

The defining image of his innings, however, was his defensive prowess, and his understanding of his unique methods - fully open stance segueing into a slightly less-than-side-on position. He had seemed a little vulnerable against the full ball early on, with his front foot not getting far enough forward to drive, but as he grew used to the conditions, he cut out the drives almost entirely and began letting the ball come to him.

Thirty-two of Alam's runs came against the left-arm spin of Mitchell Santner, off 34 balls. Santner failed to offer the consistency New Zealand may have expected when they brought him back into their Test XI, dropping short frequently, allowing Alam to rock back and pull or cut him away. With the pitch offering a decent amount of turn, especially out of the footmarks outside the left-handers' off stump, New Zealand will have been disappointed to get only 17 overs out of Santner so far.

The increased workload didn't stop the fast bowlers from throwing everything they could at Alam and Rizwan, though, using unusual angles and set unorthodox fields to try and prise out a breakthrough on a pitch where edges were unlikely to carry to a regulation slip cordon. At one point, Boult bowled to Alam with two slips, two gullies, two short covers, short leg and short midwicket in place.

Neil Wagner, as is his wont, set heavily stacked leg-side fields during the first session and attacked both batsmen with persistent short balls coming at them from their blind spot outside leg stump - from left-arm over to the right-hander and left-arm around to the left-hander. With the ball not always rising as high as expected, Alam had to get into uncomfortable positions to duck under it.

As the session wore on, batting seemed to get easier with both batsmen getting used to the pitch's slowness and the various modes of attack employed by the bowlers. Alam, who had initially ducked under nearly all of Wagner's bouncers, changed tack as lunch approached, showing a willingness to play the pull shot, picking up a pair of boundaries in this manner.

The pair came together in the second over of the morning, when Azhar Ali, batting on 38 off 119 at that point, nicked off attempting an uncharacteristically loose push outside off stump to a fullish ball from Trent Boult that seamed away to accentuate it's angle across the right-hand batsman.